Nano Maze: Keep Those Marbles Rolling

Do you remember those old wooden tilt puzzles from when you were a kid? You know the sort: They had you tilting levers to roll a marble about a field full of holes, attempting to reach the end goal. Well if you do (and you have fond memories of those aggravating things) then you might want to check out Nano Maze by developer Famous Games. The app offers the same sort of rolling fun, only with one heck of a lot of additions. So if you’re curious to know more, keep on scrolling below the break—you’ll find our full review of Nano Maze down there.

Concept and Gameplay

As stated, Nano Maze draws a lot of its inspiration from those old games we used to get around Christmas time. However, rather than trying to avoid holes in the board, you’re instead charged with making your way through a number of brightly lit and cleverly designed mazes. Within the maze you’ll need to Pac Man style collect various orbs. You’ll also need to leverage the amount of time you’re given by collecting time enhancers and avoiding time detractors. Sound easy? Well it bloody isn’t, so don’t go getting the wrong idea!

You’re really going to need to concentrate to get the job done, as the app doesn’t make it easy to maneuver the ball around. In fact, we found ourselves getting frustrated rather often. Still, it’s fun to play through the different levels, but we’re not without our complaints of the app. Keep on scrolling to see what we think could be improved.

Design and Graphics

Nano Maze for iPhone

First out of the hat, we’d simply like to say that the graphics for these levels is absolutely fantastic. However, the controls simply aren’t. We understand a challenge, but the tiny marble is too hard to get around precisely. Furthermore, there’s simply not enough variety in the gameplay. You’ll be doing the same things for ten levels after the first four. Which, by the way, you’ll only get 14 levels total, which is too short no matter how you slice it. On top of that, you can of course pay a small in-app fee to get the rest of the content offered—more on that in a second. Overall, though, we liked the concept and the look of Nano Maze, but we’re not quite sold on its overall design just yet. Future updates have plenty of opportunity to correct these issues, however.

Overall Value

Nano Maze is of course a bargain with no price tag attached in the App Store. Though, you’ll only get 14 levels, and paying the $4.99 price to get the rest of the content is not very easily justified. Still, it’s fun to play around with, if for no other reason than the killer art style. With that in mind, go ahead and snag Nano Maze, then tell us what you think below.

Nano Maze requires iOS 4.2 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.